The silenced pistol is available early and already dropping in Battle Royale matches right now. If you’re lucky, you can pick one of these up from gold treasure chests, nab one as a supply drop, or even just find it as floor loot while exploring buildings or killing off opponents.

Fortnite Battle Royale New Pistol

When you manage to find one in a chest or pilfer one off a dead player (be on the lookout for whoever killed him still hiding around the corner!), the new Fortnite pistol comes in two different flavors:

Epic Silenced Pistol (26 damage)

Legendary Silenced Pistol (28 damage)

Besides dealing slightly more damage than their common, uncommon, and rare counterparts, of course the big draw is that this version of the pistol makes no sound at long distance, and very low sound at short range.

For a full list of Battle Royale guns and how they compare to the Fortnite silenced pistol stats, check out the full breakdown of weapon stats here.

For those who prefer to hide in corners or behind bushes, now you’ve got another way to take out unsuspecting players without giving away your position (if you can get close enough — this isn’t a sniper or a rocket launcher).

Get ready to get sneaky!

Battle Royale Sneaky Silencer Mode

While anyone can now use the new silenced pistol in a match, an entirely new way to play Battle Royale revolving entirely around silenced play is set to drop soon. The limited-edition Sneaky Silencer mode is coming January 5th and runs through January 8th, 2018.

When you pick a Battle Royale match with this option turned on, all players will only have access to silenced pistols and SMGs, and bushes will drop far, far more frequently, resulting in a stealth-focused battle on a huge scale. That’s right: no assault rifles, no grenades, no shotguns, and no sounds of frenzied gunfire to alert you to the presence of killer players!

Since most people will be sitting still and silently sniping from the safety of their bush, paying attention to bush movement at the edges of the storm will be crucial to surviving to the end of the match!

After the insane 50 vs. 50 mode, it’s a good bet that we are going to see more and more of these shorter modes arriving in regular updates. The goal is clearly to get players trying something different for a few days after tiring of standard 100-player free-for-all death matches, and it’s been working so far for this player!

Sneaky Silencer Mode and a silenced pistol aren’t the only changes coming soon, however. Next up, the Cozy Campfire item is slated to land around the same time as Sneaky Silencer mode, giving cooperative players a place to slowly regain health — and vulture players a surefire place to rack up some kills!

There will be a big trade-off there as to whether you want to expose yourself for healing or stay away from a spot where campers will gleefully shoot anyone trying to get some health.

Are you going to try out Sneaky Silencer mode, and what’s your preferred strategy for getting stealthy Fortnite kills? Let us know in the comments section! For those still mastering Battle Royale, take a look at our other Fortnite guides here: